Social Worker - Intake Coordinator

Summary

The Social Worker - Intake Coordinator is assigned to work with special patient populations and highly-complex health or mental health problems requiring expert level psychosocial interventions, including coordination with inpatient mental health hospitals and the VA/DOD liaisons assigned to Military Treatment Facilities to provide a seamless transition to Behavioral Health Services (BHS) treatment.

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Duties

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The Social Worker - Intake Coordinator provides an oversight of the productivity of the BHS intake team. Clinical work includes, but is not limited to

• Maintains knowledge of Veterans benefits and services, community resources and process for making appropriate referrals to community and other governmental programs.
• Coordinates of care and discharge planning for Veterans who are inpatient at hospitals in the community and/or inpatient at other Veteran hospitals.
• Develops a treatment plan with the Veteran based on this assessment and develop the treatment plan that includes measurable time limited treatment goals.
• Must actively participate as a member of the interdisciplinary treatment team and actively participate through collaboration with Veterans and family as well as interdisciplinary treatment team members in the development and implementation of treatment goals and interventions.
• Works independently with Veterans and their families who are experiencing a wide range of complicated medical, psychiatric, emotional, behavioral and psychosocial problems.
• Facilitates biopsychosocial assessments, providing solution focused and short term counseling with Veterans and/or their families, and must complete thorough assessments to determine the treatment needs and recommendations for care.
• Completes independently thorough psychosocial assessments to determine the functioning and needs of Veterans and/or their families.
• Coordinates screening of Veterans for specific programs such as PTSD, ADATP, PRRTP, CNH, VIST, HHA, OEF/OIF and provides ongoing treatment and documentation.
• Responsible for providing education on advance health care planning and facilitates psychoeducational and support groups on a variety of topics for Veteran and their families.
• Ability to expand clinical knowledge in the profession, provide consultation and guidance to colleagues, role model effective social work practice skills, teach or provide orientation to less experienced Social Workers, develop innovations in practice interventions, and provide clinical supervision for social work licensure or certification.
• Knowledge of medical center policies and procedures, VHA and VBA regulations, as well as a knowledge base of mandatory reporting requirements and procedures in the state their CBOC is located.
• Receives and completes consults from interdisciplinary teams and other Social Workers on complex difficult cases using advance practice skills and expertise. Incumbent provides in person and/or utilize telehealth services for individual, group, and family psychotherapy and advanced level case management interventions used in the treatment of Veterans with poly-trauma injuries, spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, visual impairment, post-traumatic stress disorder, addictions, and other serious disorders
• Must possess a working knowledge and experience in use of medical and mental health diagnosis, disabilities and treatment procedures, including acute, chronic and traumatic illness, common medications and their effects/side effects and medical terminology.
• Documents independently and in accordance with VHA DIRECTIVE 2011-025, that workload closeout must be transmitted no later than 7-calendar days from the date of the outpatient care encounter. This includes, documentation in CPRS electronic medical records, including psychosocial assessments, diagnostics, treatment, progress notes, follow-up and referrals.
• Interviews and conducts psychosocial assessments to establish Veteran's treatment needs, presenting problems, and DSM V diagnoses; assesses high risk factors, acuity and need for services, at times for walk-ins and unscheduled visits and interprets and explains VA treatment and benefit programs.
• Must provide consultation and education to Veterans and their families regarding community resources, VA benefits and specialty programs, and advance directives. This includes the incumbent's knowledge of the process for accessing and/or coordinating community-based services, including information and referral for additional services from other VA programs, other government programs and community programs.
• Must be available to provide consultation to other treatment team and staff members regarding psychosocial needs of Veterans and/or their families and the impact of the identified psychosocial problems on the Veterans health care planning and compliance with treatment.

Other related duties as needed.

Total Rewards of a Allied Health Professional

VA Careers - Social Work :

Work Schedule : Full-time, Monday - Friday, 8:00 - 4:30pm EST

EDRP Authorized: Former EDRP participants ineligible to apply for incentive. Contact View email address on click.appcast.io, the EDRP Coordinator for questions/assistance. Learn more

Functional Statement # : PD05780F

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job.
• All applicants tentatively selected for VA employment in a testing designated position are subject to urinalysis to screen for illegal drug use prior to appointment. Applicants who refuse to be tested will be denied employment with VA.
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.
• Must be proficient in written and spoken English.
• You may be required to serve a probationary period.
• Subject to background/security investigation.
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process.
• Must pass pre-employment physical examination.
• Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP).

Qualifications

Basic Requirements :

• United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.
• Education. Have a master's degree in social work from a school of social work fully accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). Graduates of schools of social work that are in candidacy status do not meet this requirement until the School of Social Work is fully accredited. A doctoral degree in social work may not be substituted for the master's degree in social work. Verification of the degree can be made by going to to verify that the social work degree meets the accreditation standards for a masters of social work.
• Licensure. Persons hired or reassigned to social worker positions in the GS-0185 series in VHA must be licensed or certified by a state to independently practice social work at the master's degree level. Current state requirements may be found by going to
• Physical Requirements. See VA Directive and Handbook 5019, Employee Occupational Health Services.
• English Language Proficiency. Candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English to be appointed as authorized by 38 U.S.C. § 7403(f).

GRADE DETERMINATIONS. In addition to the basic requirements for employment, the following criteria must be met when determining the grade of candidates.

Senior Social Worker, GS-12

• Experience/Education. The candidate must have at least two years of experience post advanced practice clinical licensure and should be in a specialized area of social work practice of which, one year must be equivalent to the GS-11 grade level. Senior social workers have experience that demonstrates possession of advanced practice skills and judgment. Senior social workers are experts in their specialized area of practice. Senior social workers may have certification or other post-masters training from a nationally recognized professional organization or university that includes a defined curriculum/course of study and internship or equivalent supervised professional experience in a specialty.
• Licensure/Certification. Senior social workers must be licensed or certified by a state at the advanced practice level which included an advanced generalist or clinical examination, unless they are grandfathered by the state in which they are licensed to practice at the advanced practice level (except for licenses issued in California, which administers its own clinical examination for advanced practice) and they must be able to provide supervision for licensure.

Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. In addition to the experience above, candidates must demonstrate all of the following KSAs:

1. Skill in a range of specialized interventions and treatment modalities used in specialty treatment programs or with special patient populations. This includes individual, group, and/or family counseling or psychotherapy and advanced level psychosocial and/or case management.
2. Ability to incorporate complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice.
3. Knowledge in developing and implementing methods for measuring effectiveness of social work practice and services in the specialty area, utilizing outcome evaluations to improve treatment services and to design system changes.
4. Ability to provide specialized consultation to colleagues and students on the psychosocial treatment of patients in the service delivery area, as well as role modeling effective social work practice skills.
5. Ability to expand clinical knowledge in the social work profession, and to write policies, procedures, and/or practice guidelines pertaining to the service delivery area.

Assignments. For all assignments above the full performance level, the higher-level duties must consist of significant scope, complexity (difficulty), and variety and be performed by the incumbent at least 25% of the time. Senior social workers are licensed or certified to independently practice social work at an advanced level. Senior social workers typically practice in a major program area such as but not limited to: Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center or Polytrauma Network Site; a Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Center, or a national VHA referral center, such as a national Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or a national Transplant Center, or other program areas of equivalent scope and complexity. The senior social worker may be assigned administrative responsibility for clinical program development and is accountable for clinical program effectiveness and modification of service patterns. Assignments include clinical settings where they have limited access to onsite supervision such as CBOCs or satellite outpatient clinics. The senior social worker collaborates with the other members of the treatment team in the provision of comprehensive health care services to Veterans, ensures equity of access, service, and benefits to this population, ensures the care provided is of the highest quality. The senior social worker provides leadership, direction, orientation, coaching, in-service training, staff development, and continuing education programs for assigned social work staff. They serve on committees, work groups, and task forces at the facility, VISN and national level, or in the community as deemed appropriate by the supervisor, Social Work Executive or Chief of Social Work Services. This assignment is to be relatively few in number based on the size of the facility/service and applying sound position management. This assignment must represent substantial additional responsibility over and above that required at the full performance grade level and cannot be used as the full performance level of this occupation.

References: VA Handbook 5005/120 Part II Appendix G39, Dated September 10, 2019.

The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12.

Preferred Experience: The completion of a minimum of one (1) year of post Masters of Social Work degree experience in the field of mental health Social Work (VA or non-VA experience) and licensure or certification in a state at the independent practice level. A doctoral degree in Social Work from a school of Social Work may be substituted for the required one (1) year of professional Social Work experience in a clinical setting.

Physical Requirements: The physical demands of this position involve primarily walking, sitting, talking, driving, use of the telephone, etc. Light lifting, under 15 pounds, Light carrying, under 15 pounds, Hearing (aid permitted).

Education

IMPORTANT: A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education.

Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit:

This position is eligible for the Education Debt Reduction Program (EDRP), a student loan payment reimbursement program. You must meet specific individual eligibility requirements in accordance with VHA policy and submit your EDRP application within four months of appointment. Program Approval, award amount (up to $200,000) and eligibility period (one to five years) are determined by the VHA Education Loan Repayment Services program office after complete review of the EDRP application.

Additional information

Receiving Service Credit or Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave: Federal Employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee. Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior work experience or military service experience. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed.

This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies.

This position is in the Excepted Service and does not confer competitive status.

VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply. The health-related positions in VA are covered by Title 38, and are not covered by the Schedule A excepted appointment authority.

If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement.

Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

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A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.

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Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.